The Vincent Thomas Bridge will close overnight this week as work continues to replace finger joints on the aging structure.

Caltrans began a $4.8 million project earlier this month to replace the joints on the 56-year-old bridge — and remove, after two years, the metal plates on the span’s roadways — requiring some evening and early morning closures.

This week’s closures were scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 27, according to a California Department of Transportation statement.

The bridge, part of State Route 47, will close in both directions, from Harbor Boulevard to Ferry Street, from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. until Friday morning, Jan. 31.

Then, the bridge’s eastbound lanes will close, between Harbor and Ferry, from 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1, to noon Sunday, Feb. 2; westbound lanes will close from 11:45 p.m. Saturday to 11 a.m. Sunday, according to Caltrans.

The Vincent Thomas Bridge, which opened in November 1963, is one of two spans — the Gerald Desmond Bridge is the other — that partner to carry commuters between San Pedro and Long Beach, via Terminal Island. It also, like the Gerald Desmond, is a main thoroughfare for trucks entering and exiting the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Donna Littlejohn has covered the Harbor Area as a reporter since 1981. Along with development, politics, coyotes, battleships and crime, she writes features that have spotlighted an array of topics, from an alligator on the loose in a city park to the modern-day cowboys who own the trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She loves border collies and Aussie dogs, cats, early California Craftsman architecture and most surviving old stuff. She imagines the 1970s redevelopment sweep that leveled so much of San Pedro's historic waterfront district as very sad.

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